I have been using NeatReceipts for a couple of years now. I generally like the product, but I am now using BOTH the 'Classic ver 1.5.9" and the new Ver 4.0 software because Neat Receipts broke a covenant with it early adopters. They broke two of the cardinal rules of product development (1) never, ever, under any circumstances forget your early customers and their data (2) never remove vital features of the product.

First, they "forgot" their "Classic ver 1.5.9" users. Versions of the software from 2.0 up thru the current ver 4.1 cannot reconize or import any of the receipts or documents scanned into the earlier version. I have personally talked to then about this for almost 2 years. At first, in early 2007, they repeatedly stated that they were hard at work on migration solution. We depended on that statement telling them how important it was for us to be able to access our archived data - for inventories, insurance and tax records.

But they finally just abandoned this effort and offered everyone a discount to upgrade to a later version. How is that going to help with restoring archived data? The data and file formats for their .elrec and .eldoc seem fairly simple - a scanned image and some recognized text fields. Why can't they import those formats like they allow for jpeg and tiff images?

They offered no acceptable reasons beyond that we are no longer working on that feature and would you like to upgrade. They seem to be oblivious to the frustrations they have caused a large number of their customers. We even communicated with Rafi Spero, one of the companies owners. If he couldn't make it happen, you know they don't care about you as a customer. BEWARE THIS COMPANY.

Secondly: The "Classic" version allowed users to create folders and subfolders, etc. This was a fantastic way to organize receipts for cash, various credit cards, checks and debits, by year and then by month. Or to organize a copy of receipts for an inventory by broad categories and then further by store, year or vendor. So the initial features of both subfolders and the ability to copy receipts from yearly tax records to inventory folders was extremely useful and helpful in elimnating paperwork clutter.

The new ver 4 software does not support nested folders or copying receipts to other folders. Every time you scan a receipt, it goes into a folder. But all folders are on the same level. You can show and hide folders, but this is an extremely clumsy process and causes users a lot of extra work in trying to organize their invoices and receipts. If you want to copy a receipt, you have to scan it AGAIN. How brain-dead is that?

Bottom Line: This company has proven that, at their convenience, they will ignore or abandon prior versions of the software and remove vital features.

To fix some of their current short-coming, as mentioned above, it would not surprise me to see them create a new version of their software that is incompatible with they are selling today.

DO NOT TRUST them with any vital data that you may need in the future.

If your looking to store your receipts for insurance or tax purposes, look no further. Neat Receipts Model 0346 is your solution.I was amazed at how well this scanner works. I have stored receipts in boxes for years, just in case I ever need them for insurance purposes.I was amazed at how well the scanner works scanning my old receipts. I was afraid that a lot of my older receipts would not scan, because they faded from old age, but I was wrong, only a few receipts did not scan properly.
Great Job Neat Co. & Great Price Amazon

I purchased this for two purposes: one for managing my personal finances by keeping Quicken up to date and two for serving as a general purpose scanner for business purposes (I work in an office hosted by another organization and don't have access to some of the usual office equipment). I use this primarily in Windows (both work laptop and on my Mac via Parallels) but have also played around with the Mac version of the software.

With respect to getting started, I found the "out of the box" experience less than intuitive and the getting started instructions and documentation less than sufficient. Perhaps I'm a bit dull but it too me a couple tries to figure out that items have to be scanned face down. Along the way there were a few features I had to muddle through because I could not find adequate explanations in either the written or video tutorials. For example when converting a scanned item to a non-searchable "report" PDF it took me a while how to figure out how to convert only the images as opposed to creating a document with cover pages etc. This wasn't made transparent in the documentation. I'm still not a huge fan of the way these turn out - I would prefer an option that produces a PDF version without "borders." (if you've tried this you know what I mean.)

My second minor frustration with this is that the software is less than responsive - i.e. slooowww. From starting up (which almost always takes two tries) to simply navigating around.

With respect to the receipt recognition, it doesn't handle ATM withdrawal receipts very well, which is a fairly common transaction for me. I also had a hard time entering a receipt that combined a product return and new purchase that resulted in a net expense. Worked with customer service who was very responsive but we couldn't work out a solution.

Finally, the Mac software seems pretty different from the Windows version which requires relearning how to do different things though again, I have not played with this one as much.

Overall, I plan to continuing using it as it serves my purposes and I'm not using it everyday. I'll try to post an update with more use under my belt.

There is no way of disabling the ANNOYING system notification process (Neat Works has finished processing yadda....) IT"S 2008!!!!!

Using the Neat Desk scanner: You must hold/guide certain receipts, that are not the exact width of one of the feeder, to make sure it goes through straight, or it will scan at a crooked angle, and you cannot fix with the software. (You can only rotate in 90 degree increments.)

Which means you can forget scanning multiple receipts... (which also means you get the annoying system notification message every time...)

You cannot edit receipt images (especially cropping) once you have filed it. (You must delete and re-scan. Hopefully you kept the receipt...)

Does not remember (or have) default sort orders. You may set your receipts to sort by date (descending) and then by vendor, but if you split a transaction it goes away and you have to redefine it again.

Cannot split transactions duing review & filing process. Very problematic when scanning in multiple receipts as you have to note each one and where it is filed so you can go find and THEN split.

Cannot enter negative amounts when splitting. (required if you return/exchange something from 1 folder but purchased other things from other folders.) You have to generate a 'fake' 0 amont split and then enter negative numbers in that one.

BUT, you must be careful as there is NO way (NONE) to audit split receipts. There is no view, report or anything to show all splits for 1 particular receipt to make sure totlas were correct. (or even to audit sometime down the road.)

When working with split transactions you will need an EXTERNAL calculator (or spreadsheet) to calculate amounts - especially tax amounts as the software does not provide a calculator - or ways of enetering the tax amounts (while splitting - you can afterwards - just not during...)

All reports are designed for business purporses (all based on spending) and there are no reports for personal use - AND - there is no way to design or run reports other than the few that are built in. No way to audit folders or receipts, etc. For instance: a report showing all receipts by folder, or all recipts by date, etc.

I cannot even run a report without the software locking up and having to use task manager to end app. And then when I restart I LOSE ALL DATA FROM THE LAST TIME ENTERED. (Which just happened - and I lost 1.5 hours of work entering2 (yes TWO) receipts.

And, of course, their website has no place for customer feedback... (at least publicly...)

This is $50 bucks less than what I paid for it a month ago, and for that I am MAD at amazon.com.

This scanner does scan reciepts. The software has some cool features, such as a tax organizer with all the schedules and additional information so it guides you where to put things on your tax returns.

But other than that, it's far too slow to be easily useable. It hangs up, takes well over an hour to close up for me, and uses all my PCs availible memory. It's only getting worse the more reciepts I scan in, so now I'll have to buy a probably overpriced hardrive to store them in? LAME!
Specifically it takes too long to process a scan after I scan it, somtimes in cue for a very long time. But even worse, is recatagorizing the reciepts, as this software 'learns' what is a reciept, and has a sorting system for documents and contacts as well (it doesn't always work, somtimes putting stuff all over where it does not belong). But when I try to do this on my machine, it takes several minutes for EACH RECIEPT/SCAN/DOCUMENT. I have thousands of records. There is not enough time in the day to wait for this process.


The scanner is fine, the hardware part. Yes it scans. Probably scans just as well for $150 as it does for $200, probably even that much better for the satisfaction you would get.

I think you should get it, even though I sort of hate it now. It's the easiest way to deal with reciepts, which is really too bad. It 'sucks' the reciepts in a bit, which works on most newer reciepts, and less for a year or two old, wrinkled reciepts. But a gentle push and they make their way through.
Just make sure you have nothing else to do on your computer for awhile. And get a cushy mousepad to bang your head on while you wait if you paid too much like I did.
And hopefully they will update the software to make it faster.